The most important functional systems on a drilling vessel must, to satisfy current regulations, have a certain overcapacity such that for example safe positioning by means of for example thrusters can be maintained even if unintended events should occur.
Events of this kind may comprise damage caused by outside events where one or more components are put out of action, or internal damage in the form of breakdown, fire, flooding or the like.
In prior art e.g. propulsion plants are split into groups whereby safe operation can be maintained even if one of the groups should fail. It is also common that components from one group may be activated to serve another group if the need should arise.
It is obvious that for example adequately segregated running of cables on a drilling vessel from generators via distribution boards and to said thrusters, typically via a deck, columns and pontoons, can be challenging. It is a common requirement for a drilling vessel to be capable of continuing operation following a single damage to the vessel.
This means that a fire e.g. in a supporting column must not damage the power supply to more than for example one quarter of the thrusters. When the requirement, as an example, is that thrusters belonging to the same group and placed in different positions in the vessel shall remain intact even if the vessel is damaged, the complexity of running of cables is increased considerably. Important cables should therefore be placed in different areas and spaced well apart, which due to limited space is difficult to achieve.
The object of the invention is to mitigate or reduce at least one of the disadvantages of prior art.
The object according to the invention is achieved by the features stated in the description below and in the following claims.